Rebecca had not returned to say:
My daughter.
Give her back.
She had spent decades hoping the stranger who received her baby had loved her.
Then last year Zane found her.
“How?”
Emily asked.
“My hospital admission.”
Rebecca said.
“I used my birth surname on an emergency-contact history.”
“Some investigator he'd hired had a standing alert.”
Zane arrived two days later.
Rebecca said she screamed at him.
Hit him with her left hand because the right barely worked after the stroke.
Catherine laughed through tears.
“That's my girl.”
Rebecca almost smiled.
Then she asked Zane the first question:
“Did Claire know?”
He said no.
Rebecca made him leave.
He returned three days later.
She let him in.
He apologized.
For the lie.
For losing her.
For ignoring the six-month agreement.
For allowing Emily to grow up without the truth.
Then Rebecca asked to see Emily.
Zane promised.
A month later, he learned his cancer was terminal.
